Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Loneliness”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources
PubMed2005

Combating loneliness among persons with severe mental illness: social network interventions' characteristics, effectiveness, and applicability.

More than half of people with severe mental illness are lonely, the subjective state associated with social isolation and lack of desired relationships. Their loneliness is related to impaired ability to make and keep friends, lack of opportunities to participate in social activities, and stigma associated with mental illness that creates barriers between them and their communities. Treatment for people with severe mental illness often fails to include social network interventions that have the potential to decrease loneliness. Knowledge of social network interventions-their characteristics, effectiveness, and applicability for specific patients-can guide nurses' use of these treatment modalities.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed2004

Coping with loneliness: adolescent online and offline behavior.

This study looked at the similarities between the way adolescents cope with loneliness both online and offline. There were 429 participants, ranging from 14 to 23 years old, who answered a questionnaire posted on the Internet. There was a strong relationship between avoidant coping strategies offline and Entertainment Internet use. In addition, adolescents who considered Communication as the most important use of the Internet also coped with loneliness through Emotion Expression and Social coping. Results suggest that online and offline coping behaviors are strongly related especially if they are avoidant.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2006

Existential loneliness in a palliative home care setting.

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of an incurable disease implies an existential crisis. This study focused on the emotions, perceptions, and experiences of existential isolation in palliative patients with cancer and their families. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 40 respondents (20 patients and 20 family members) were interviewed in depth. All were Swedes who defined themselves as nonreligious. The patients were enrolled in an advanced hospital-based home care team. The interviews were taped, transcribed, and analyzed with a qualitative, hermeneutic method. RESULTS: The data revealed experiences of existential loneliness with the impending death as a primary source. Experiences of being alone in "a world of one's own" were common. The changes in everyday life and the increasingly restricted social interaction because of the illness meant that the patient partly lost the protection against isolation that the spirit of community normally provides. Other situations that had a triggered the existential isolation were, for example, when a patient in need of support was left alone, when he or she was treated disrespectfully or in a way that made him or her feel invisible, or when people avoided contact because of uneasiness or fear. Changes in one's own body and mood gave rise to feelings of loneliness and unfamiliarity toward oneself. When a staff member touched the patient's body in a nonempathic way, this could induce feelings of being treated like an animal.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Allaying loneliness in freshman medical students: an outcome of an elective course.

An empirical study of the effects of a psychiatry elective on first-year medical students' reported satisfaction with school and their reported level of loneliness is described in this article. Surveys before and after the class provided evidence that satisfaction with school decreased significantly among freshmen not taking the course. In contrast, male course participants' levels of satisfaction with school and with faculty-student relationships did not drop significantly, nor did female participants' levels of satisfaction with faculty-student relationships. Nonparticipants reported a significant increase in loneliness during the study period. In contrast, no such increase was reported by either men or women course participants.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The effects of sense of belonging, social support, conflict, and loneliness on depression.

BACKGROUND: A number of interpersonal phenomena have been linked to depression, including sense of belonging, social support, conflict, and loneliness. OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of the interpersonal phenomena of sense of belonging, social support, loneliness, and conflict on depression, and to describe the predictive value of sense of belonging for depression in the context of other interpersonal phenomenon. METHOD: A sample of clients with major depressive disorder and students in a midwestern community college participated in the study by completing questionnaires. RESULTS: Path analysis showed significant direct paths as postulated, with 64% of the variance of depression explained by the variables in the model. Social support had only an indirect effect on depression, and this finding supported the buffer theory of social support. Sense of belonging was a better predictor of depression. CONCLUSIONS: The study findings emphasize the importance of relationship-oriented experiences as part of assessment and intervention strategies for individuals with depression.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Visual impairment related to cognition and loneliness in old age.

Reported problems in visual acuity were examined as determinants of loneliness experienced by community dwelling people with either impaired or unimpaired cognition. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used as a screening instrument to form a cognitively-impaired (MMSE 20-23/30) and a cognitively-intact group (MMSE 28-30/30). A total of 147 subjects took part in the study and were examined by an optometrist. Subjects with intact cognition tended to report visual problems more often than subjects with cognitive deficits. One out of two subjects had slight visual impairment, in both cognitive groups. After acuity had been optimally corrected, six to seven out of ten subjects' visual acuity did improve. In a multiple regression analysis, higher MMSE score and visual improvement were significantly related to lower levels of self-reported loneliness among the elderly with their cognition intact, but not among the subjects with impaired cognition.

Aged↗
PubMed1984

The relationship of personality to social network aspects and loneliness in depressed patients.

In a study of 110 depressed patients possible relationships between personality and social contact features, loneliness and contact difficulties, have been investigated. The results yielded numerous correlations between personality characteristics and different aspects of the social environment. Most pronounced were the relationships with loneliness and contact difficulties.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Quality of life, loneliness, and social contact among long-term psychiatric patients.

OBJECTIVE: Long-term patients who resided in county-operated psychiatric nursing homes in a county in Norway as of November 15, 1989, were visited by researchers in 1996 to assess how they perceived their living situations and how they had adjusted to a large reduction in county psychiatric beds during the six-year period. METHODS: Of 107 patients identified in 1989, a total of 75 were still alive in 1995. Seventy-four took part in the study and were visited at their place of residence. Thirty patients were living in general nursing homes, 23 patients remained in the psychiatric nursing homes, and 21 patients lived outside of institutions, in a personal residence. The quality of the patients' contact with others was rated by health care providers who were familiar with the patients. Forty-two patients, with a mean age of 56.9 years, responded to personal questions about their life situation, loneliness, and quality of life. RESULTS: Health care providers constituted the patients' most important network. Patients outside of institutions were the most socially active and had the most satisfying contact with their families. Patients reported a satisfactory quality of life, and those who lived outside institutions tended to be most satisfied. The variables of loneliness, satisfaction with neighborhood, and leisure time activities explained 63 percent of the variance in patients' subjective well-being. CONCLUSIONS: Most long-term patients who had moved out of psychiatric institutions were satisfied with their living situation and reported a relatively high quality of life.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Emotional loneliness in sexual murderers: a qualitative analysis.

This study compared levels of emotional loneliness between sexual murderers and rapists who had not gone on to kill their victim/s. All participants were life-sentenced prisoners in the United Kingdom. Assessment consisted of a semistructured interview and was subjected to grounded theory analysis. This approach is defined as the breaking down, naming, comparing, and categorizing of data. As such, it is distinguished from other qualitative methods by the process of constant comparison. This continual sifting and comparing elements assists in promoting conceptual and theoretical development. The results of this process found that sexual murderers, compared to rapists, reported significantly higher levels of grievance towards females in childhood, significantly higher levels of peer group loneliness in adolescence, and significantly higher levels of self as victim in adulthood.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Loneliness correlates in advanced alcohol abusers. I. Social factors and needs.

A previous report on 34 alcohol abusers undergoing rehabilitation revealed that, among 86 medical, social and psychological variables, "feelings of loneliness" were most important for the prognosis. The current analysis was performed in order to illuminate the less satisfactory prerequisites regarding external social factors and needs of the lonely alcohol abuser. Ninety-five abusers, the previously mentioned sample included, were examined twice with an approximate interval of two years. The results indicated that there were no simple or obvious correlations to the external social situation (the amount of contacts, social network, etc). Feelings of loneliness were more closely associated with dissatisfaction with the quality of existing relationships, independent of quantity. Furthermore, even in relation to work and activities, the lonely abusers showed a general dissatisfaction with the existing situation, independent of its nature. In addition, the lonely abusers felt dissatisfied in a number of need domains, although they were only inclined to stress the priority of some social needs. To sum up, the lonely abuser showed a recurrent pattern characterized by discontentment and dissatisfaction, in combination with some traces of passivity in essential life-spheres.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Loneliness and living conditions of the oldest old.

This paper describes 211 of the oldest old, 90 years or older, in a broad perspective based upon well-being, living conditions and the living situation during a period of two and a half years. The subjects were interviewed, and at the first contact four out of five old persons were living in their own homes, 66% regarded themselves as healthy and three out of five depended on help for primary ADL. Approximately one of two experienced loneliness, the same proportion in each age group 90, 91 etc. Slight relations were found between experienced loneliness and age and subjective health. Slight relations were also found between subjective health and cognitive impairments. During the follow-up period 43% of the old people had died, and all were being cared for in institutions in their final stage of life.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2002

Coping behavior and loneliness among obese patients.

BACKGROUND: Morbid obesity can be accompanied by physical and social problems that may influence interpersonal relationships and the recruitment of social support. The problems can be tackled with a variety of coping strategies. METHODS: 104 patients with a body mass index (BMI) 32-64 kg/m2 and mean age 36 yr were presented with the Utrecht Coping List (UCL) and the Loneliness Scale. Of these patients, 94 were female, and this cohort was analyzed more extensively. RESULTS: Patients exhibited elevated values on the Loneliness Scale and in the UCL sub-scales palliative response, avoidance / wait-and-see, passive / depressive response pattern and expression of emotions / anger. The active approach UCL sub-scale scored lower than in a control group. CONCLUSION: Obese female patients displayed avoidance, wait-and-see and passive response pattern as coping behavior, experiencing their intimate relationships as relatively unreliable and not very intimate. More research is needed to determine the effect of coping behavior on therapeutic effect.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1983

Loneliness and the poet: Robert W. Service.

The subject of loneliness has received inadequate attention at the hands of psychoanalysts. As a matter of great psychopathologic significance, the topic requires urgent attention. Its components and consequences are more complex than one realizes at first glance. As a great concern of mankind loneliness is naturally seized upon by poets, who dwell upon it in their work, whether or not they are consciously aware of it. These points have been studied in this essay by a scrutiny of the life and work of the poet, Robert W. Service.

Family↗
PubMed2001

Loneliness in relation to suicide ideation and parasuicide: a population-wide study.

Some links between loneliness and different manifestations of suicidal conduct have been reported in variety of subgroups (e.g., college students, the elderly, psychiatric patients). We tested this hypothesis by using the results of a population-wide survey. Strong associations among suicide ideation, parasuicide and different ways of being lonely and alone, defined either subjectively (i.e., the feeling), or objectively (i.e., living alone or being without friends), were observed. Moreover, prevalence of suicide ideation and parasuicide increased with the degree of loneliness. Only minimal differences between men and women were found.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Avoidance of Ontological Confrontation of Loneliness and some epidemilogical indices of social behavior and health.

A scale, Avoidance of the Ontological Confrontation of Loneliness, was developed to assist the psychometric recorded documentation of choice of avoidance versus confrontation strategy to the issue of loneliness. Analysis showed low scores (confronters) reported increased use of soft drugs and were absent from employment more often than medium or high scorers. Borderline statistically significant findings hint that high scorers (avoiders) lean toward less alcoholic beverage consumption while low scorers lean toward fewer automobile accidents and less use of medication than medium groupings. These results both advantages and disadvantages to strategies of awareness.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Loneliness, personality, and well-being in older widows.

Correlations between loneliness and desired control, psychological well-being, physical well-being, and affiliation were examined in a sample of 30 older widows. Findings supported associations between loneliness and personality characteristics related to social interaction and well-being.

Aged↗
PubMed2000

Loneliness and adaptation among second-generation Portuguese migrants to France: roles of perceived responsibility and control.

This study explores the association of perceived responsibility for loneliness and perceived control over loneliness on social adaptation and psychological adaptation among 109 second-generation Portuguese migrants to France. Analysis showed that rated perceived control was more highly associated with scores on social adaptation and psychological adaptation than perceived responsibility.

Acculturation↗
PubMed1991

Demographic predictors of self-reported loneliness in adults.

The relative magnitude of individual demographic characteristics, compared with other demographic characteristics, in the prediction or explanation of frequency of loneliness has not been examined or reported in the literature. The relative strengths of a series of demographic variables (gender, age, marital status, household income, educational attainment, race or ethnicity, employment status, and occupation) in explaining frequency of loneliness in a random sample of 8,634 adults residing in a large metropolitan county were examined. Logistic regression analysis indicated several variables significantly affected group membership as lonely vs not lonely: marital status, household income, gender, and educational attainment. The strongest predictor of all was marital status. Age group as a predictor variable approached significance, but employment status, occupational, and race/ethnicity were not significant predictors of group membership as lonely vs not lonely in the logistic regression model.

Adolescent↗